Last week, it was announced that Sony and Microsoft have formed partnership that will see the two companies share access to Microsoft’s Azure cloud based tech for new game streaming and AI technology. Now, it appears that the partnership caught many on the PlayStation side of things off guard.
In a report by Bloomberg, it appears that the partnership had been in the in the works since last year, and, according to sources close to the situation, were made at the highest levels within Sony “largely without the involvement of the PlayStation unit.” This apparently even made some worry about Sony’s plans for their next console. However, this shouldn’t be such a worry as partnerships have formed between the companies before as Microsoft uses Sony’s Blu-ray drives in their consoles.
A partnership like this may have been formed, so both console manufacturers have a good shot with stiff competition in the game streaming service space. Game streaming has been touted as the future of video games. Sony does currently have PlayStation Now as their game streaming platform, and, thanks to this partnership Microsoft, the service should grow and become better using the Azure servers. Microsoft, on the other hand, has Project xCloud, their game streaming platform, currently in development.
While the two massive companies usually just compete with each other in the video game space, they will be facing new contenders entering the ring with game streaming. The biggest competition the two video game mainstays will face is Google who announced Google Stadia, streaming platform that will work across devices that use Google Chrome, which is set to release later this year. Elsewhere, both Amazon and surprisingly Walmart reportedly have their own game streaming services in the works.
While we’ll probably have wait a good few years to see who comes out on top of the game streaming war, both Sony and Microsoft have new traditional consoles in the works. Microsoft is reportedly planning to unveil their next console at E3 next month. Sony recently unveiled some details about their next console, but gave no indication as to when it will be revealed. However, the company has stated the console won’t release until after April 2020.